Hugo Haas was one of the stars of Czechoslovak cinema's golden age of the
1930s. This versatile actor and director was hugely popular in the First
Republic and he appeared in a number of classic films from that era.
Despite his success, however, Haas's life and career - like that of so
many other Czechs who lived during this period - was blighted by the tide
of history that swept through Czechoslovakia in the 20th century.

Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas was born in 1901 in Brno to a Jewish merchant family. Although he
hadn't much of an academic career, he did attend the Conservatory in Brno,
where the composer Leos Janacek was supposedly instrumental in getting him
to study drama.

Haas was subsequently hired by the National Theatre in both Brno and
Prague, where he quickly rose to prominence as a gifted comic actor. Movie
roles soon followed and Hugo Haas rapidly established himself as one of the
leading filmstars of his generation. Czech film historian Pavel Taussig
says Hugo Haas stood out among his peers because of his understated,
realistic style of acting, which was quite unique in cinema at a time when
most film actors were simply theatre thespians performing in front of a
camera:

"Hugo Haas was one of the most prominent Czech actors during the
period when he worked in this country, both in the theatre and especially
in film. At the same time it's very important to remember that he was also
one of the most modern actors around. Haas was one of the very first actors
in the world to erase the distinction between an acting performance and
normal human behaviour. You can see this when he is playing a normal
"civilian" for the camera. His performance is such that you get
the feeling you're actually watching a documentary. They say that good
actors understand that you don't act in front of a camera; you should
simply exist. Haas managed to do this to perfection."

A Street in Paradise
Although the 1930s represented a high-water mark for Czechoslovakia's
burgeoning film industry, which threw up a host of stars such as Vlasta
Burian and Oldrich Novy, Hugo Haas was probably the leading man who most
appealed to Czech audiences at the time, playing likeable bumbling
characters in hugely popular films such a Tri muzi v snehu (Three Men in
the Snow) and Ulicka v Raji (A Street in Paradise). Pavel Taussig says
that, despite his stardom, Hugo Haas still managed to retain a certain
everyman quality, which charmed Czechoslovak audiences.

"Most actors, even comics, are very conceited. Haas wasn't like that.
Although he himself was very good-looking with lots of sex appeal and was
much admired by women, Haas could create a mask. He didn't mind making
himself appear ridiculous and unattractive. At the same time he could be
very ironic and even self-deprecating. Above all, he didn't take himself
too seriously, and this is where he was very different to other actors
from this country, such as Vlasta Burian."

Although Haas initially specialised in comic roles, he could also play
parts which had a serious edge, such as the embattled Dr. Galen in the
film version of Karel Capek's play Bila Nemoc or The White Plague, which
is considered to be one of Haas's finest works.

Bila nemoc is known for its satirical portrayal of a bloodthirsty
dictator, who is strongly reminiscent of Hitler, a figure whose shadow
loomed large over Europe when the movie was made. Unfortunately, Bila
Nemoc turned out to be a sadly prescient film: Just one year after it was
completed, Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia and Haas was forced to flee his
homeland for fear that he would be persecuted as a Jew and anti-Nazi
sympathiser. His brother, the composer Pavel Haas, was not so lucky and
ended up perishing in Auschwitz, something which haunted Haas for the rest
of his life.

After fleeing Czechoslovakia, Haas eventually settled in America, where he
continued to pursue a career in film. As he didn't speak much English
initially, he had to adjust to not being a leading man anymore. He
gradually managed to establish himself as a supporting character actor,
usually playing an oily foreigner or villain, most notably as the Dutchman
Van Brun in the Oscar-winning King Solomon's Mines.

When he had managed to scrape enough money together from acting, he set
about making his own films such as Pickup and Thy Neighbours Wife. These
were usually cheaply-made B-movies, which were a far cry from the work
Haas did in the 1930s. Nevertheless, Pavel Taussig says that Haas's
achievement in actually getting into a position to make films again should
not be underestimated:

Hugo Haas (left)"Naturally these [later] films are very low-budget, as he had very
little resources at his disposal to shoot them. He made them as cheap,
small-scale projects for as little money as possible. But if we take
account of the fact that so many famous directors from the Old World ended
up in America after the war, and so many of them didn't make it, then we
have to look at what Hugo Haas managed to achieve as a success."

Pavel Taussig maintains that Haas's acting talent never left him and that
he even had an influence on a number of younger American actors:

"It's no coincidence that he also became a much sought-after acting
teacher when he started acting as well as directing and producing his own
films, For example, he deserves credit for helping to launch the career of
Gregory Peck, who later became very famous."

Despite the fact that Haas retained the respect of his fellow actors in
America, his films from this period were not well received by critics.
Besides their cheap production values, movies like Thy Neighbours Wife
were attacked for their lurid and tacky plotlines, which usually centred
around a middle-aged man - played by Haas himself - being enticed and
ruined by a younger seductress.

Hugo Haas
Some reviewers found these movies so shoddy and second-rate that they
described Haas as a "foreign Ed Wood," and it's a label that
still persists to this day. Pavel Taussig admits that Haas's later films
come nowhere near his masterpieces from the 1930s, but claims that they
should be viewed within the context of Haas's life as an exile in America.

"The tragic fate of his family and of Jews in general really left its
mark on him. This also manifested itself in his work. He tended to seek
refuge in melancholy. Sometimes it was even a little bit kitsch. Most of
the characters he played later on were old men who were all alone and who
nobody was interested in. These characters usually fell for a younger
woman, but their love would invariably turn out to be nothing but a false
illusion and they quickly ended up having to face the harsh reality of
their situation. These scenarios pretty much tied in with Haas's own
personal feelings about living abroad and the melancholy of his
exile."

Hugo Haas
Haas eventually returned to Europe in the late 1950s and settled in Vienna
in 1961, where he occasionally appeared on television. Despite the fact
that comic acting was perhaps his greatest gift, he never made another
comedy after leaving Czechoslovakia. He is said to have been planning to
return to permanently to his homeland during the Prague Spring, but this
never happened due to the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Haas was deeply affected by the invasion and died a few months afterwards.

In many ways, his career was indicative of the history of
twentieth-century Czechoslovakia in that it flourished in the 1920s and
30s before being severely disrupted as a result of Nazi and lSoviet
tyranny. Although Haas did manage to make over thirty films in exile, he
is best remembered today for the work he did in Czechoslovakia, which
Pavel Taussig says is still highly appreciated:

"I think his importance and popularity is confirmed several times a
year when Czech Television shows a film starring Hugo Haas. These
screenings always gets huge ratings, unlike many contemporary films shown
in cinemas today, which a few hundred or couple of thousand people go to
see. When a Hugo Haas film is shown, hundreds of thousands of people still
tune in to watch, even after so many years."